The term woman's suffrage refer to the economic and political
reform movement aimed at extending
suffrage
— the right to
vote — to women. The movement's modern origins lie in
France in the
18th century. Of currently existing independent countries,
New
Zealand was the first to give women the vote. However when this happened
in 1893 it was not a "country", in the sense of being an independent nation
state, but a mostly self-governing colony.[1]
Places with similar status which granted women the vote before New Zealand
include Wyoming
(1869). Other possible contenders for first "country" to grant female suffrage
include the
Corsican Republic, the
Isle of
Man, the
Pitcairn Islands,
Franceville and
Tavolara, but some of these had brief existences as independent states and
others were not clearly independent.
Women's suffrage has been granted at various times in various countries
throughout the world. In many countries women's suffrage was granted before
universal suffrage, so women from certain
races and social classes were still unable to vote.
In medieval
France and several other European countries, voting for city and town
assemblies and meetings was open to the heads of households, regardless of
sex. Women's suffrage was granted by the
Corsican Republic of 1755 whose
Constitution stipulated a national representative assembly elected by all
inhabitants over the age of 25, both women (if unmarried or widowed) and men.[citation
needed] Women's suffrage was ended when France annexed
the island in 1769. The origins of the modern movement for female suffrage are
to be found in France in the 1780s and 1790s in the writings of
Antoine Condorcet and
Olympe de Gouges, who advocated this as a right in national elections.
In 1756,
Lydia Chapin Taft, also known as Lydia Taft, became the first legal woman
voter in
America.[2]
She voted on at least three occasions in an open
New
England
Town Meeting, at
Uxbridge, Massachusetts, with the consent of the electorate. This was
between 1756 and 1768, during America's colonial period.[3]New
Jersey granted women the vote (with the same property qualifications as
for men, although, since married women did not own property in their own
right, only unmarried women and widows qualified) under the
state constitution of 1776, where the word "inhabitants" was used without
qualification of sex or race. New Jersey women, along with "aliens...persons
of color, or negroes," lost the vote in 1807, when the franchise was
restricted to white males, partly in order, ostensibly at least, to combat
electoral fraud by simplifying the conditions for eligibility.
The
Pitcairn Islands granted women's suffrage in 1838. Various countries,
colonies and states granted restricted women's suffrage in the latter half of
the nineteenth century, starting with
South Australia in 1861. The 1871
Paris Commune granted voting rights to women, but they were taken away
with the fall of the Commune and would only be granted again in July 1944 by
Charles de Gaulle. In 1886 the small island kingdom of
Tavolara became a republic and introduced women's suffrage.[4][5]
However, in 1899 the monarchy was reinstated, and the kingdom was some years
later on annexed by
Italy. The Pacific colony of
Franceville, declaring independence in 1889, became the first
self-governing nation to practice universal suffrage without distinction
of sex or color;[6]
however, it soon came back under
French and
British colonial rule.
Unrestricted women's suffrage in terms of voting rights (women were not
initially permitted to stand for election) in a self-governing colony was
granted in
New
Zealand in the early 1890s. Following a movement led by
Kate Sheppard, the
women's suffrage bill was adopted mere weeks before the
general election of 1893.
The self-governing colony of South Australia granted both universal
suffrage and allowed women to stand for the colonial parliament in
1895.[7]
The Commonwealth of Australia provided this for women in Federal elections
from 1902 (except
Aboriginal women). The first European country to introduce women's
suffrage was
Finland, at the time a grand duchy of
Russia. The
administrative reforms following the 1905 uprising granted Finnish women the
right both to vote (universal and equal suffrage) and to stand for election in
1906. The world's first female members of parliament were also in Finland,
when on 1907, 19 women took up their places in the
Parliament of Finland as a result of the
1907 parliamentary elections.
Soviet poster celebrates women's right to vote and to be elected.
In the years before the
First
World War,
Norway (1913) and
Denmark
also gave women the vote, and it was extended throughout the remaining
Australian
states. Canada
granted the right in 1918 (except in
Quebec, where
it was postponed until 1940), as did
Soviet Russia.
British women over 30 and all
German and
Polish women
had the vote in 1918,
Dutch
women in 1919, and
American women in states that had previously denied them suffrage were
allowed the vote in 1920. Women in
Turkey were
granted voting rights in 1926. In 1928, suffrage was extended to all British
women on the same terms as men i.e. over 21. One of the last jurisdictions to
grant women equal voting rights was
Liechtenstein in 1984. Since then only a handful of countries have not
extended the franchise to women, usually on the basis of certain religious
interpretations.
Until 2008,
Bhutan allowed one vote per property, a policy that many claimed in
practice prevented many women from voting. However, inheritance in Bhutanese
society is
matrilinear, and since daughters inherit their parents' property and men
are expected to make their own way in the world, Bhutanese women may
potentially have had greater political power, although this was only
theoretical. In July 2008, universal suffrage was introduced through the
adoption of the new
constitution, and all adult Bhutanese women will be able to vote in the
next general elections.
Suffrage movements
The suffrage movement was a very broad one which encompassed women and men
with a very broad range of views. One major division, especially in Britain,
was between
suffragists, who sought to create change constitutionally, and
suffragettes, who were more militant. There was also a diversity of views
on a 'woman's place'. Some who campaigned for women's suffrage felt that women
were naturally kinder, gentler, and more concerned about weaker members of
society, especially children. It was often assumed that women voters would
have a civilising effect on politics and would tend to support controls on
alcohol, for example. They believed that although a woman's place was in the
home, she should be able to influence laws which impacted upon that home.
Other campaigners felt that men and women should be equal in every way and
that there was no such thing as a woman's 'natural role'. There were also
differences in opinion about other voters. Some campaigners felt that all
adults were entitled to a vote, whether rich or poor, male or female, and
regardless of race. Others saw women's suffrage as a way of canceling out the
votes of lower class or non-white men.
Women's suffrage by country
The argument over women's rights in Victoria, Australia, was
lampooned in this Melbourne Punch cartoon of 1887
Australia
The first election for the Parliament of the newly-formed
Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 was based on the electoral provisions of
the six states, so that women who had the vote and the right to stand for
Parliament at state level (in
South Australia and
Western Australia) had the same rights for the 1901 Federal election. In
1902, the Commonwealth Parliament passed its own electoral act that extended
these rights to women in all states on the same basis as men. However, the
Commonwealth legislation excluded all Aboriginal men and women from the
Commonwealth franchise, which in theory some of them had enjoyed in 1901
(state Parliaments generally had property qualifications for the franchise,
which in practice few Aboriginals met). This was not corrected until 1962,
through an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act (it was not an outcome
of the 1967 referendum that gave the Commonwealth Parliament the power to
legislate specifically on Aboriginal matters).
Canada
Widows and unmarried women were granted the right to vote in municipal
elections in
Ontario in 1884. Such limited franchises were extended in other provinces
at the end of the 19th century, but bills to enfranchise women in provincial
elections failed to pass in any province until
Manitoba
finally succeeded in 1916. Full enfranchisement was not to come until 1918,
when the
Dominion (federal) parliament passed an act giving women the vote. The
remaining provinces quickly followed suit, except for
Quebec, which
did not do so until 1940.
Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the Dominion Parliament
in 1921.
The municipal elections of 11 February 1934 were the first held with women
voting. However, the right to vote was granted only to women that were
literate and aged 30 or older. It was not until 28 May 1952 that suffrage was
unconditionally extended to all adult women in
Greece, with
them voting for the first time in the parliamentary elections of 19 February
1956.
Indonesia
In the first half of the twentieth century,
Indonesia
was one of the slowest moving countries to gain women’s suffrage. They began
their fight in 1905 by introducing municipal councils that included some
members elected by a restricted district. Voting rights only went to males
that could read and write, which excluded many non-European males. At the
time, the literacy rate for males was 11% and for females 2%. The main group
who pressured the Indonesian government for women’s suffrage was the
Dutch Vereeninging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (VVV-Women’s Suffrage
Association) which was founded in
Holland in 1894. They tried to attract Indonesian membership, but had very
limited success because the leaders of the organization had little skill in
relating to even the educated class of the Indonesians. When they eventually
did connect somewhat with women, they failed to sympathize with them and thus
ended up alienating many well-educated Indonesians. In 1918 the colony gained
its first national representative body called the
Volksraad,
which still excluded women in voting. In 1935, the colonial administration
used its power of nomination to appoint a European woman to the Volksraad. In
1938, the administration introduced the right of women to be elected to urban
representative institution, which resulted in some Indonesian and European
women entering municipal councils. Eventually, the law became that only
European women and municipal councils could vote, which excluded all other
women and local councils. September 1941 was when this law was amended and the
law extended to women of all races by the Volksraad. Finally, in November
1941, the right to vote for municipal councils was granted to all women on a
similar basis to men (with property and educational qualifications).[12]
The group who were working for women’s suffrage in
Holland was the
Dutch Vereeninging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (VVV-Women’s Suffrage
Association) which was founded in 1894. In 1917 Dutch women became electable
in national elections, this led to the election of Suze Groeneweg of the SDAP
party in the general elections of 1918. On the 15th of May 1919 a new law was
drafted to allow Women's suffrage without any limitations. The law was passed
and the right to vote could be exercised for the first time in the general
elections of 1922.
Voting was made mandatory from 1918, this was not lifted until 1970.
Women in
New
Zealand were inspired to fight for their voting rights by the
equal-rights
philosopher
John Stuart Mill and the British
feminists’ aggressiveness. In addition, the missionary efforts of the
American-based
Women’s Christian Temperance Union gave them the motivation to fight.
There were, in fact, a few male politicians that supported women’s rights,
such as
John Hall,
Robert Stout,
Julius Vogel, and
William
Fox. In 1878, 1879, and 1887 amendments extending the vote to women failed
by a hair each time. In 1893 the reformers at last succeeded in extending the
franchise to women.
Although the
Liberal government which passed the bill generally advocated social and
political reform, the electoral bill was only passed because of a combination
of personality issues and political accident. The bill granted the vote to
women of all races. New Zealand women were not given the right to stand for
parliament, however, until 1919. In 2005, almost a third of the
Members of Parliament elected were female. Women recently have also
occupied powerful and symbolic offices such as those of
Prime Minister,
Governor-General,
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and
Chief Justice.
Norway
Middle class women could vote for the first time in 1907 (i.e. women coming
from families with a certain level of prosperity). Women in general were
allowed to vote in local elections from 1910 on, and in 1913 a motion on
general suffrage for women was carried unanimously in the Norwegian parliament
(Stortinget).
Carolina Beatriz Ângelo was the first
Portuguese
woman to vote, in
1911, for the
Republican Constitutional Parliament. She argued that she was the head of
a household. The law was changed some time later, stating that only male heads
of households could vote. In
1931, during the
Estado Novo regime, women were allowed to vote for the first time, but
only if they had a high school or university degree, while men had only to be
able to read and write. In
1946, a new
electoral law enlarged the possibility of female vote, but still with some
differences regarding men. A law from
1968 claimed to
establish "equality of political rights for men and women", but a few
electoral rights were reserved for men. After the
Carnation Revolution, in
1974, women were
granted full and equal electoral rights.
Spain
In the Basque
provinces of
Biscay and
Guipúzcoa
women who paid a special election tax were allowed to voted and get elected to
office till the abolition of the Basque
Fueros. Nonetheless the possibility of being elected without the right to
vote persisted, hence
María Isabel de Ayala was elected mayor in
Ikastegieta in 1865. Woman suffrage was officially adopted in 1933 not
without the opposition of
Margarita Nelken and
Victoria Kent, two female
deputees, who argued that women in Spain and at that time, were far too
immature and ignorant to vote responsibly, thus putting at risk the existence
of the
Second Republic. During the
Franco regime only male heads of household were allowed to vote. From
1976, during the
Spanish transition to democracy women regained the right to vote and be
elected to office.
Sweden
During the Swedish
age of liberty (1718-1771), tax-paying female members of
guilds, (most
often widows), were allowed to vote, and stand for election, until 1771.
Between 1726 and 1742, women took part in 30 percent of the elections. New
regulations made the participation of women in the elections even more
extensive in the period of 1743-58.
The vote was sometimes given through a male representative, which was a
usual reason given by the opposition to female suffrage. In 1758, women were
excluded from the
mayor- and local elections, but continued to vote in the national
elections. In 1771, this suffrage was abolished through the new constitution.
In 1862, tax-paying women of legal majority were again allowed to vote in
the local elections. The right to vote in national elections was not returned
to women until 1919, and was practiced again in the election of 1921, for the
first time in 150 years.
Switzerland
The
Swiss referendum on women's suffrage was
held on 1 February 1959. The majority of Switzerland's men voted no,
however in some
cantons the vote was given to women.[15]
Switzerland was one of the last Western democracies (the other being
Liechtenstein) to allow women to vote. Women did not gain the right to
vote in federal elections until 1973.
United Kingdom
A British cartoon showing why imprisoned
suffragettes are refusing to eat in prison
The campaign for women's suffrage gained momentum throughout the early part
of the nineteenth century as women became increasingly politically active,
particularly during
the campaigns
to reform suffrage in the United Kingdom.
John Stuart Mill, elected to
Parliament in 1865 and an open advocate of female suffrage, campaigned for
an amendment to the
Reform
Act to include female suffrage. Roundly defeated in an all male parliament
under a Conservative government, the issue of women's suffrage came to the
fore.
During the latter half of the 19th century, a number of campaign groups
were formed in an attempt to lobby
Members of Parliament and gain support. In 1897, seventeen of these groups
came together to form the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), who held public
meetings, wrote letters to politicians and published various texts. In 1907,
the NUWSS organized its first large procession. This march became known as the
Mud March
as over 3000 women trudged through the cold and the rutty streets of
London from
Hyde Park to
Exeter
Hall to advocate for women’s suffrage.
In 1903, a number of members of the NUWSS broke away and, led by
Emmeline Pankhurst, formed the
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). As the national media lost
interest in the suffrage campaign, the WSPU decided it would use other methods
to create publicity. This began in 1905 at a meeting where
Sir Edward Grey, a member of the newly elected Liberal government, was
speaking. As he was talking, two members of the WSPU constantly shouted out,
'Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?' When they refused to cease
calling out, police were called to evict them and the two suffragettes (as
members of the WSPU became known after this incident) were involved in a
struggle which ended with them being arrested and charged for assault. When
they refused to pay their fine, they were sent to prison. The British public
were shocked and took notice at this use of violence to win the vote for
women.
After this media success, the WSPU's tactics became increasingly violent.
This included an attempt in 1908 to storm the
House of Commons, the arson of
David Lloyd George's country home (despite his support for women's
suffrage) and an incident in 1913 in which
Emily Davison, a suffragette, interfered with a horse owned by
King George V during the running of the
Epsom
Derby and was trampled and died four days later. The WSPU ceased their
militant activities during the
First World War and agreed to assist with the war effort. Similarly, the
NUWSS announced that they would cease political activity but continued to
lobby discreetly throughout the
First World War. In 1918, with the war over, Parliament agreed to
enfranchise women who were over the age of 30. It was not until 1928 with the
Representation of the People Act 1928 that women were granted the right to
vote on the same terms as men.
United States
Seal of
Wyoming.
The state motto, "Equal
Rights", refers to Wyoming being the first state to grant women's
suffrage, in 1869
In 1848, at the
Seneca Falls Convention in
New York,
activists including
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott began a seventy year struggle to secure the right to vote
for women.
Susan B. Anthony, a native of Rochester New York, joined the cause four
years later at the Syracuse Convention. Women's suffrage activists pointed out
that blacks had been granted the franchise and had not been included in the
language of the
United States Constitution's Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments (which
gave people equal protection under the law and the right to vote regardless of
their race, respectively). This, they contended, had been unjust. Early
victories were won in the territories of
Wyoming (1869)[16]
and
Utah (1870), although Utah women were disenfranchised by provisions of the
federal
Edmunds-Tucker Act enacted by the
U.S. Congress in 1887. The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at
least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote,
Utah women would
dispose of
polygamy. It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in
favor of polygamy that the U.S. Congress disenfranchised Utah women.[17]
By the end of the nineteenth century,
Idaho,
Colorado,
Utah, and
Wyoming had
enfranchised women after effort by the suffrage associations at the state
level.
National women’s suffrage, however, did not exist until 1920. During the
beginning of the twentieth century, as women's suffrage gained in popularity,
suffragists were subject to arrests and many were jailed. Finally,
President Woodrow Wilson urged Congress to pass what became, when it was
ratified in 1920, the
Nineteenth Amendment. While the ability to vote was a national trend
forming since the progressive years of Republican
President William Taft, Woodrow's predecessor, Taft's appointment as Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court in 1921 was seen as the watershed moment for
equal-pay legislation. Taft's dissenting opinion in
Adkins v. Children's Hospital in 1923 was a progressive move and called
out a maximum-hours law was equivalent to a minimal-wage. The Supreme Court
overturned the decision, to agree with Taft, in 1934 permanently ruling
separate hours/rates for women and men as unconstitutional.
Brunei
— Women (and men) have been denied the right to vote or to stand for
election since 1962.[19]
Lebanon
— Partial suffrage. Proof of elementary education is required for women but
not for men. Voting is
compulsory for men but optional for women.[20]
Saudi Arabia — No suffrage for women. The first local elections ever
held in the country occurred in
2005. Women were not given the right to vote or to stand for election,
although suffrage may be granted by 2009.[21]
^ Colin
Campbell Aikman, ‘History, Constitutional’ in McLintock, A.H. (ed),An
Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 3 vols, Wellington, NZ:R.E. Owen,
Government Printer, 1966, vol 2, pp.67-75.
^
Chapin, Judge Henry (2081).
Address Delivered at the Unitarian Church in Uxbridge; 1864.
Worcester, Mass.: Charles Hamilton Press (Harvard Library; from Google
Books).
^
Markoff, John, 'Margins, Centers, and Democracy: The Paradigmatic History
of Women's Suffrage' Signs the Journal of Women in Culture and Society,
2003; 29 (1)
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